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De Lima to Duterte: Hindi po ako lalaban

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The senator is imposing that Duterte is just abusing his executive power.

In response to President Rodrigo Duterte's accusations against Sen.
Leila de Lima, the latter said on Thursday that she would not fight the
president as she is only a senator.

De Lima
faced the media and said that the issues she's encountering have been
making her sleep-deprived. She considered the President Duterte's
allegations as offensive and claiming that his act "is no less than the
abuse and misuse of the executive power."

In spite of that, she said she would not fight back but instead called to be granted due process.

"How
does one defend oneself, when the attacker is immune from suit and has
all the backing of executive power to support him in his personal
attack? This is no less than abuse and misuse of executive power. I
don't think the Constitution has ever contemplated such abuse of power
on such scale, as it assumes every president to conduct himself in a
manner befitting the office he holds,” she said.

De
Lima also revealed that in order to stop the personal attacks against
her, she thought of halting the Senate's investigations about the
extrajudicial killings and summary executions which are being heavily
correlated to the president's war on drugs.

According
to the senator, she has been receiving information and threats about
altered evidence to come out to oppose her if she continues the fight
against summary executions. De Lima said she is prepared to face these
charges but asked Duterte to pardon her family, friends, and colleagues
from his attacks.

“I have always been loyal to my oath as a public servant. I am not the enemy here. Stop portraying me as one,” she said.

Questions
by the media were turned down by an emotional De Lima as she stated
that she is hurting a lot. She thought of not seeing the media due to
condemnations but realized she has to eventually face the issues thrown
at her.